Another Senior Moment...

Of Barack Obama.



Well, there is that al Qaeda in Iraq group.

Thanks to Say Anything Blog.
DKK

Proof of Concept

Watching the protests of the Chinese Olympics brings to mind an interesting observation.

The Chinese annexed Tibet in 1951 (soldiers first entered in 1950). Protests have been going on for at most of my life, and there have to be enough, "Free Tibet," bumper stickers on old VW Buses to wallpaper the Great Wall. Yet these protests have hardly phased China.

Which brings us to Saddam Hussein.

Instead of feel good protests real action was taken and a murderous dictator was removed and now millions of people have the opportunity for freedom that 50 years of, "Free Tibet," protests haven't touched.

The scoreboard of those freed.

Protests -- 0
Action -- 23,000,000

Speaking of Free Tibet, anyone able to find the Family Guy clip of Peter walking past a protester yelling and carrying a free Tibet sign, and he says, "Free Tibet huh? I'll take it!" then he runs to the phone, calls China, and says, "Hello, China? I have something you may want. But it's gonna cost ya... That's right... All the tea." (http://www.familyguyfun.com/peter.html)
DKK

Global Warming, The Story Changes

Did you know that global temperatures had actually gone down in the past decade?

Well if you missed the online BBC story for scant ninety minutes that it appeared in its original form Friday, April 4, 2008, you might not be aware of that fact.

It seems a climate activist browbeat the reporter via Email and within 90 minutes the story changed without notice, including the stories own, "Page Last Udated..." advice. The activist then bragged about it online.

Anthony Watts has more including the links as well as an animated gif showing the before and after changes on his climate blog, Watts Up With That.

Newsbusters has the full story including the text of the Emails in which the activist admonishes the BBC reporter that there really is no room for debate and then threatens to spread the news that this reporter had been turned by the skeptics.

Here is the BBC story as it appears today.
DKK

Whose Senior Moment?

During the Senate Petraeus hearings this week there was a senior moment from a candidate, but it wasn't Senator McCain, it was Senator Obama!

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ RYAN CROCKER: Senator, as I said in my statement, we have no problem with a good, constructive relationship between Iran and Iraq. The problem is with the Iranian strategy of backing extremist militia groups and sending in weapons and munitions that are used against Iraqis and against our own forces.

OBAMA: Do we feel confident that the Iraqi government is directing these -- this aid to these special groups?

Do we feel confident about that, or do we think that they're just tacitly tolerating it? Do you have some sense of that?

CROCKER: There's no question in our minds that the Iranian government, and in particular the Quds Force, is -- this is a conscious, carefully worked-out policy.

(emphasis added)

CQ transcript provided by the Washington Post.

It's The Politics,Stupid

A Hill staffer sends this along:

It’s the Politics, Stupid:

Comparing Labor Market Data in 1996 and 2008

Democrats on the Economy in 1996:

“Our economy is the healthiest it has been in three decades.” (President Bill Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996)

Democrats on the Economy in 2008:

“The bottom line is that this administration is the owner of the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover." (Senator Charles Schumer, Press Release, March 7, 2008)

Key Labor Market Statistics in 1996 and 2008
	March 1996	March 2008
1. U.S. Unemployment Rate	5.5%	5.1%
2. Number of Long-Term Unemployed	1.33 million	1.28 million
3. Average Weeks Unemployed	17.3 weeks	16.2 weeks
4. Median Weeks Unemployed	8.3 weeks	8.1 weeks
5. Not in Labor Force because discouraged over job prospects	451,000	401,000
6. Democrats calling for Extended Unemployment Benefits?	No	Yes
7. President’s Party Affiliation	Democrat	Republican

From The Corner On National Review.
DKK

Purpose and Description

The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate the type and quality of content I would be willing to provide the RRStar in an effort to provide them with a balanced portfolio of political blogs.

The current blogs listed in the political category on their site include; Applesauce, In Chambers, Sweeny Report, and Why We Vote.

They break down as follows:

• Applesauce is a prolific far left blog that addresses national issues. The content is mainly composed of links to the left wing of the blogosphere along with a short quips, photo, and video content. Occasionally there are longer posts that include opinions on the items linked. Comments are quickly answered, often with another quip.
  
• In Chambers is a blog that covers Illinois state politics. It appears to be right of center but that could be the result of its adversarial nature to the current state administration. There is no real interaction in the comments.
  
• Sweeny Report is a blog written by the Political Editor of the Register Star who blogs from the center right. Postings are sporadic, concentrating on local, state and national issues and are mainly short thoughts on events with few links. He doesn't like to respond to anonymous comments uncharacteristic of blogs but consistent with a newspaper.
  
• Why We Vote is a group blog consisting of the thoughts of the members of the Register Star's voters opinion panel. The posts are mostly left of center (including those from the independents to date). The conservative member who was posting, sadly, passed away recently.

The breakdown of posting from March 27, 2008 through April 10, 2008 are as follows:

• Applesauce 50 posts with 45 out links.
• In Chambers 11 posts with 70 out links.
• Sweeny Report 8 posts with 1 out link.
• Why We Blog 9 posts (8 left 1 right) 0 out links.

There is a clear left wing bias in the number of the posts in the political blog section at the RRStar and since the front page displays the most recent posting there is a very good chance that the home page will display a post that reflects a leftist viewpoint.

On four different occasions (two dates to two divisions) I have submitted suggestions to the RRStar offering to blog from the right and this blog is an example of what the content would look like, just in case they are interested. In addition I Emailed my suggestion to Chuck Sweeny, but I think I only signed it David and he may have ignored it since I didn't include my full name, in any case I have not received a single reply either by phone or by Email.

This is my attempt to provide balance for the RRStar in the hopes that they will accept my offer and allow me to begin blogging as one of their political bloggers concentrating on national politics from the right side of the blogosphere.

Thank you,
David